Thursday - Mildura to Mungo National Park

Thursday – Mildura to Mungo National Park

This morning was the most beautiful morning of all. There were pelicans on the river right near us and paddle steamers going up and down the river. There was not a cloud in the sky and standing in the sun chatting to the neighbours was just lovely. I found out they live down the road from one of my dearest friends in Research in Melbourne – fancy that!

The reason why I had time to stand around and chat on a packup day was that I was cooking a Shuttle Chef casserole inside  and it had to cook out for ¾ of an hour before I could put it in its vacuum container and put it in the cruiser for 8 hours of slow cooking. The sun was so lovely warming our bones.  I was also at a stage that until it came off the stove, I could not do anything else – so it was a shame I had to bide my time having a chat.

We packed up, hitched up, topped up the water tank in the van and made for Wentworth. We had to drive past ORANGE WORLD again but resisted the stop for more cultural enlightenment.

Wentworth is the most pretty town. We weren’t going to go to Wentworth originally but the people we were camped next to said they had $5 lunches at the club. Bargain! So off we went and since we hadn’t had anything but a fruit shake for breakfast, we were there for the first call for lunch.

There we were – all the oldies for their $5 lunch between bingo and us. Apart from some high vis clad tradesmen we were the youngest people there. Greg had the bangers and mash and I had roast chicken. Both meals were great. You can’t even make a sandwich for $5!! To top it off we stuck $1 in a poker machine on the way out hoping to make it all back. We didn’t so we went over the road to the tourist information centre to get some information on Mungo National Park. It had rained a lot the week before and some of the roads were washed out and shut. This would seriously put a damper on our plans for the next few days.

The tourist information staff as usual were cheerful and helpful. The road was still shut as were several others but since the weather had been fine for the last few days it was hoped that it would be open again in the next few days. 

After a look around which included a model paddle steamer place and meeting the bloke who painstakingly built the models, we visited the junction of where the Murray meets the Darling. Saw some more birds, went on a short walk. Visited the conveniences and then hopped back in the car to go to Mungo.

The Top Hut Road to Mungo - very rutted - the poor little van!

There are 2 ways of getting to Mungo, one road is just out of Mildura and the other is through Wentworth. I had never been to Wentworth so we went that way. The road out of Wentworth is the one that continues on to Broken Hill. At one point you have to turn off the main road on to a road called Top Hut Road which is a dirt road – or to Mrs Gps an Unpaved road. We turned off and into a very rutty, washed out and corrugated road indeed. While the cruiser laughed off the bumps the poor little van was getting bumped around to pieces. It’s a 60km or so drive but we were down to 40km/hr trying not to jiggle the van around so much. We imagined bits falling off it and returning it to our friend in a bucket of parts like a puzzle to be put back later. However, dragging your van slowly down a dirt road makes you appreciate the scenery. It was very scrubby and teaming with wildlife. Other than birds – mainly magpies which are nothing to get excited about as they are common as muck everywhere, there were wild goats, emus and kangaroos. It was all very exciting as I hung out the passenger side window with my SLR Nikon camera clicking furiously at retreating wildlife. Oh what fun.

Eventually though all the jiggling make me need a wee and since we were going so slowly over a particularly deeply corrugated and pot holed bit, I suggested I jump out on the go and find a wee spot, Greg could keep going slowly and I could just run back to the car which would save time. It was after 3pm and we didn’t want to be on this road too late – much less setting up in a National park in the dark so it was a great plan of mine indeed. I hopped out and found a nice bush to water, then set out on my run. I could see the cruiser about 100 meters ahead – however the road had evened out a bit so Greg went a bit faster – so I had to run a bit faster and for longer before I caught up. By the time I did that I was stuffed and puffing but it did save time.

Two hours of bumpy rutty jarring road – and yes the caravan had not fallen off yet, we arrived at the Mungo National Park Visitor site. It was nearly 5pm.

Our camp site at Mungo National Park

We paid our money into an honesty box envelope and I wandered inside to the display area and asked a lady there where the camp ground was. I forgot to ask her about firewood. The camp ground is about 2km from the visitor centre. There are pit enviro toilets which aren’t too pongy. There are also rubbish bins and places to put a good fire and a smaller campfire place to cook. There is a circular one way road around with camp sites graded out. The whole thing is really set up and with the toilets in the middle, they are a quick, cross legged waddle from anywhere. There is also an area under cover with some gas bbq’s which you can operate for a dollar. Some camp sites had a little table and chairs which was under a cover so I chose one of these. Unfortunately with all the rain, the previous campers had no choice but to slosh around in the mud. When the mud dried, it dried into deep ruts and footprints like cement which created a very uneven surface to walk on. Very carefully I selected a part to park the van where one could exit the van without the risk of turning an ankle or falling.

We set up our camp and Greg and I became worried about the lack of firewood and the fact that in a national park you cannot burn any wood that is lying around.  So while he did the finishing touches to the set up, I high tailed it in the car back to the visitors centre to ask about purchasing firewood. Nobody was there at this time so I was left with no choice but to try and scrounge a few bits from the edge of the road. Trouble was I had nowhere to put the wood as the car was chocka block full of our stuff. Carefully placing the cameras into a safe place, I decided that the best bet was to put it on the front passenger floor as we had our rubber car mats there which would collect most of the stuff that fell off the wood. I was then just worried about what might crawl our of it.

Like someone doing something naughty that they didn’t want to get caught doing – like nicking blackboard dusters from school – not that I did that because I was a good girl…. I parked the car on the side of the road and kept her idling for a fast get away, sized up a dead tree figuring that there would be some smaller bits that would make for a nice little fire. Fast as I could I gathered armfuls of wood, hoping not to get a splinter, prickle or bitten by some milti legged nasty. I shoved it in the car as fast as I could and hopped back in very pleased with my efforts, returned to camp.

Greg was not as impressed with my efforts as I thought he would be as I was extremely impressed with what I just had to do and he told me that the wood I got wouldn’t last long. He also exclaimed as to the state of the car’s front seat which now had bits of bark and dirt on our nice black fluffy seat covers. I told him that it’s a 4wd car and its supposed to get dirty as I furiously swept the crap out of it with a dustpan and broom.

Never mind, we had neighbours which were about 20 meters away in another site and we waved to each other and then they invited us over. Greg was having a sit down and ponder the universe moment – I’d had enough of them in the car on the journey up so I went over to the nice waving people and bought my wine in a glass and stick for the fire.  They appreciated my gesture and thought the stick was a really nice touch. We had a lovely chat. Their names were Wendy and Pat and they had a nice new van, had rented out their house in Melbourne and were on the road for the next 2 years wandering around. We became friends, and when Greg joined us after his little patch of serenity we all had a good chat and agreed to meet at the visitor centre the next day at 10am for the $10 walk and information session.

Then we  wandered back to our camp where our shuttle chef cassarole only needed 5 minutes on the cooker before it was ready and it was delicious.

We then settled in for the night, being a little tired, Greg had lit our little fire and we sat out for a while looking at the gazillion stars that littered the sky and listening to nothing. No trucks, trains, other people’s tv, dogs barking, kids crying – nothing. It was just the best. We had a great night’ sleep